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Revealing your true feelings to the person you fancy may be daunting but it could make them feel the same, it was claimed on Monday.

Telling a possible partner ‘I really like you’ could make him or her immediately more attracted to you.

Being honest, while making eye contact or smiling, is of great importance in the blossoming of mutual attraction – not just natural beauty, according to scientists.

‘Our latest research highlights how social cues, which signal the extent to which others are attracted to you, also play a crucial role in attraction,’ said psychologist Dr Ben Jones, who helped carry out the research at the University of Aberdeen.

‘What we found was that the preference for the attractive face was much stronger when people were judging those faces that were looking at them and smiling.’

Attractiveness is how someone combined natural beauty and these ‘social cues’, the study said.

Volunteers were shown four cards which pictured a face with different expressions.

The face is shown making eye contact and not smiling; not making eye contact and not smiling; making eye contact and not smiling and making eye contact and smiling.

The vast majority of people found, perhaps unsurprisingly, the face which was looking at them and smiling to be the most attractive.